At Sidra Medicine, patients with congenital heart defects (CHDs) benefit from minimally invasive procedures conducted based on precision medicine practice.
Sidra Medicine has performed pioneering surgeries on CHD patients, according to Sidra Medicine’s research report for 2020.
CHDs are the most common type of birth defects (approximately 1% of all births result in congenital heart disease) and are the leading cause of birth defect-associated infant illness and death.
Serious congenital heart defects typically require open heart surgery or other invasive procedures within the first year of life, and is followed up by other surgeries and procedures into adulthood. Tetralogy of Fallot is a common congenital cardiac defect. Traditionally, patients with this defect are sent for open-heart surgery within the first few months of life. Many of these patients end requiring a valve to be inserted between the right ventricle and pulmonary artery. Some of these patients can benefit from a minimally invasive procedure to place an artificial valve which is administered through the groin region.
However, majority of the patients cannot benefit from this minimally invasive procedure. Almost 80 per cent of patients with this defect have to undergo open-heart surgery because the native area of the valve is larger than the approved available artificial valve diameters.
“Clinical research is a key part of our remit at Sidra Medicine. As surgeons and physicians, we are committed to ensuring that we never stop researching new treatment and technologies that can save lives and ease the care and treatment of our patients,” said Dr. Ziyad M. Hijazi, Acting Chief Medical Officer and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics, in the report.
Dr. Hijazi, an interventional cardiologist, is working to implement minimally invasive procedures for such patients, by practicing precision medicine which would help drive Sidra Medicine’s clinical research agenda.
With his expertise, Dr. Hijazi, assigned as a Global Principal Investigator in collaboration with a Chinese medical device manufacturer that developed and fashioned a valve that would benefit patients who were previously bound to undergo an open-heart surgery.
The report stated that once such patient of Dr. Hijazi came seeking help from Dubai, for whom administering the approved valve was highly unlikely due to a larger diameter.
Dr. Hijazi, in collaboration with the manufacturer, successfully fashioned her treatment plan and ordered a custom-made artificial valve based on a 3D model of her heart. The patient successfully underwent placement of the valve in her pulmonic position and has safely gone on to deliver healthy twin babies.
